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i have nothing to say for myself except that i have mercury in virgo...

im just gonna say it upfront, the conclusion my dozen consecutive hours of research, discussion monitoring, and analysis have led me to is that PLEDIS is one of the most likely candidates for bighit's second acquisition. i dismissed it at first because it was just too obvious, everyone's first guess was pledis right? it couldn't be. but the more i read and thought about it, the more convinced i became that pledis could be the one. everything fits.

WHAT WE KNOW

• the second agency bighit is acquiring is home to a boy group that is 1. "top" (톱, written in the headline and 2. “large-scale” (대형, written in the body of the article).
• after the acquisition of source music and the second agency, bighit will have a total number of 6~7 groups. taking out bts, txt, and gfriend, that leaves 3~4 groups in the second agency.
• bighit is close partners with cj e&m, whose biggest rival is kakao m.

my analysis of possible candidates, roughly in ascending order of likelihood:

SM / YG / JYP
come on now

MBK (dia) / DSP MEDIA (april, kara, kard) / BLOCKBERRY CREATIVE (loona) / C9 (soloists) / MYSTIC (brown eyed girls) / MAROO (bonusbaby, khan)
no boy groups

CREKER (boyz) / FAVE ENTERTAINMENT (fave girls, iu) / PLAN A (apink, victon)
doesn't have enough groups
owned by kakao m

NH MEDIA (u-kiss, laboum)
not enough groups, flop
50% shares owned by signal entertainment

JELLYFISH (vixx, gugudan)
not enough groups
51% shares owned by cj e&m


STARSHIP
monsta x, wjsn, sistar, boyfriend

reasons likely to be acquired:

• monsta x maybe fits “top bg” description?
• fits 3~4 groups description
• somewhat established artists, a low effort high profit acquistion

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• owned by kakao m

FNC
ft island, cnblue, aoa, n.flying, sf9, cherry bullet

reasons likely to be acquired:

• ft island and cnblue fit “top bg” description
• sf9 (9 members) mayyybe fits “large bg” description
• somewhat established artists, a low effort high profit acquisition

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• too many groups
• ft island and cnblue still have badly dealt with ties to the burning sun and molka scandals
• fnc is a publicly traded company, would need all shareholders to be on board. shareholders include loen (kakao m)

FANTAGIO
astro, weki meki

reasons likely to be acquired:

• astro fits “top bg” description (BIG maybe? they're not nugu and im assuming "top" is heavily exaggerated for headlines)
• cha eunwoo, who isn't drooling at the thought of an asset like cha eunwoo
• ong seungwoo is also there
• very diverse portfolio including actors and restaurant business, if acquired could aid bighit's plan to go public
• somewhat established artists, a low effort high profit acquisition

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• does not fit 3~4 groups description
• fantagio is a publicly traded company, would need all shareholders on board

WOOLLIM
inifinite, lovelyz, golden child, rocket punch

reasons likely to be acquired:

• infinite fits “top bg” description
• golden child (10 members) fits “large bg” description
• fits 3~4 groups description
• somewhat established artists, a low effort high profit acquisition

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• used to be a subsidiary of SM, likely still has ties. i feel like that’s a big enough obstacle lol

CUBE
clc, (g)idle, pentagon, btob

reasons likely to be acquired:

• btob fits “top bg” description
• fits 3~4 groups description
• pentagon (9 members)
  mayybe fits "large bg" description
• somewhat established artists, a low effort high profit acquisition
• strong resources in the china market where bighit is lacking, complementary strengths
• stocks low, embroiled in scandals, public reputation in shambles

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• cube is a publicly traded company, would need all shareholders to be on board. biggest shareholder at 30+% is sidusHQ, another one of korea's entertainment giants, who has no reason to let go of cube at this moment
• [chinese idiom] a camel that starved to death is still bigger than a horse. even at its lowest point, cube is still a decently large company that would cost a fortune to acquire compared to a smaller company.

TS ENTERTAINMENT
(new entry)
sonamoo, secret, TRCNG

reasons likely to be acquired:

• fits 3~4 groups description
• TRCNG (10 members) fits "large bg" description
• private company, an easy acquisition

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• recently disbanded their biggest boy group bap amongst mistreatment lawsuits, and have a reputation for mistreating artists
• founder kim taesong died last year? would this affect anything?

TOP MEDIA
(chinese forums’ pick)
teentop, up10tion, 100%, new bg underway

reasons likely to be acquired:

• up10tion (10 members) fits “large bg” description
• fits 3~4 groups description
• boy groups only style fits with bighit

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• top media has very close ties with kakao m (quote first paragraph of top media wikipedia page: "TOP Media usually works with Kakao M as the distributor of musical releases”)
• top media moved into a new building early this year,
  when acquisition discussions would have started. don't look like they were planning to move out

RBW
(reddit’s pick)
mamamoo, vromance, oneus, onewe

reasons likely to be acquired:

• fits 3~4 groups description
• established artist/s, a low effort max profit acquisition
• (!) founder kim dohoon is personal friends with bang sihyuk
• "has been rumored for months” according to an allkpop thread

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• vromance, onewe and oneus (4/5/6 members) do not fit “top bg” or “large bg” description

PLEDIS
(my pick)
seventeen, nu'est, after school

reasons likely to be acquired:

• seventeen (13 members) fits “large bg” and “top bg” description
• fits 3~4 groups description
• established artist/s, a low effort max profit acquisition
• ties with cj e&m
• was approached by cj e&m to buy 51% of shares in july 2018, which never came to fruition
• manages fromis_9, group owned by cj e&m/stone
• supposedly, x1 is training in pledis building, another cj e&m/stone group
• recently, seventeen’s unchained melody was uploaded by cj e&m’s stone instead of kakao m’s 1thek, suggesting pledis deepening partnership with cj e&m
• i think i was mistaken about pledis being private, but 51% of shares are owned by han sungsoo himself with the remaining 49% belonging to sony, which means that technically ownership is still up for grabs if hss is willing
• strong resources in the japan market via sony where bighit is lacking (bighit's japanese management company digital adventure is an affiliate of keyeast－which was acquired by SM in 2018 with a controlling stake of 25%), complementary strengths

reasons unlikely to be acquired:

• does after school even count as a group to make 3 total
• can han sungsoo set aside his fucking huge ass ego for long enough to consider the deal
• ...???

NOW. in 2018, bighit and cj e&m formed the agency belif, which made a global audition call for male trainees earlier this year. belif was rumored to manage the pdx group but that evidently did not happen, so belif is still in want of something to do.
to me, disbanding pristin seems like internal adjustments before a major changeup, and pledis’ 2019 global audition call specified male trainees only, which smells a lot like belifhit.
if seventeen and nuest were to be transferred under the bg-only belif label shared by bighit and cj e&m, it all checks out... WHAT DO YOU THINK.